


but oh, baby, i'm a fool for you

by WattStalf



Series: Commissions [219]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Extremely Dubious Consent, F/M, Grooming, Hate Sex, Impregnation, Jealousy, Loss of Virginity, Manipulation, Unhealthy Relationships, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, commission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:40:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27105868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WattStalf/pseuds/WattStalf
Summary: Leon turns bitter after losing to Gloria, after losing everything that he has worked so hard to build. His only option left is complete revenge, deciding that he is willing to do anything, and use anyone, to make that happen.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Hop/Yuuri | Gloria, Dande | Leon/Yuuri | Gloria, Hop/Yuuri | Gloria
Series: Commissions [219]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1325462
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hop only appears at the end of this, there is a possibility of a second part with more detail on his role, but for now, this is more about the beginning.

Leon’s biggest mistake was seeing Gloria as harmless, seeing her as cute. From the moment that he meets his little brother’s childhood friend, he can tell that she has an interest in him. He’s used to girls everywhere giving him that same look, so it is no surprise that she has a celebrity crush on him, just the same as those other girls. Perhaps a little unfortunate for Hop, because the only person who seems to oblivious to the lovesick way that he gazes at Gloria is Gloria herself, but that’s hardly Leon’s concern.

He thinks of her as harmless, because he has never met a trainer who could actually stand up to him. Even though who give him a challenge and give him good battles are still no real match, not in the end, and he has held onto his championship for a little over a decade now because of that. He does not think Hop actually has even half the chance that his little brother believes that he does, and his little friend is no different. She is a good rival for Hop and actually pretty strong, but she’s still just a kid, and one that looks at Leon with that pathetic look in her eyes. Surely her crush will get in the way, even if she does make it to the championship finals.

Except it doesn’t.

Leon can hardly believe what has happened, and can hardly accept that he has actually been defeated by the little girl with the obvious crush on him, before he has to put on a smile and pretend to be excited for her, to pretend not to be a sore loser, even though he never once thought that it was possible for him to lose. He can’t lose, not to her, or to anyone else. He is the unbeatable champion, so how did something like this happen?

“That was a great battle,” Gloria says, as she shakes hands with him, beaming up at him, and that is the moment when something within him breaks. After years and years of guarding his championship, taking down every challenger that came his way, some kid with a pathetic crush on him was what it took?

At first, he did not realize he would become unbeatable. At first, the winning streak was small, but once it began to grow, he knew that he had to defend that streak at all costs, that he could never afford to lose, not even once. Just one loss is all it takes for his kingdom to crumble, and Gloria is that loss. Gloria is the one to topple his castle to the ground with a bright smile, still gazing at him with the same lovesick smile his brother gives her, still with the gall to have a crush on him.

Leon has lost everything, and something breaks in him, right then and there. She’s such a cute girl, but she isn’t harmless. Gloria destroyed everything, and now, he is going to have to work hard to get it all back, to rebuild, and he will never be able to reach the same heights, no matter how hard he might try. He will never be undefeated again, because _she_ defeated him, and even if he beats her next year and reclaims his championship, even he holds that position for another ten years, twenty, thirty, for the rest of his life, he will never be undefeated again.

So simply taking the championship back from her will not be enough. He needs to do so much more to get back at her, to get his revenge for his lost title, to ease himself of the nausea he feels knowing that even after ruining his life, she still has a crush on him. Something breaks in Leon that day, and he has only one thing on his mind.

~X~

Things were always going to be hectic, if a new champion had to be ushered in, but things are even more hectic than anything anyone ever could have planned for, after the arrest of Chairman Rose. The Pokemon league is hurting quite a bit, but Leon is there to offer his assistance and advice. He has a lot of free time on his hands now that he isn’t the champion anymore, after all.

Leon seems like the perfect choice for the chairman, at least in the interim, though he doubts that they are going to appoint anyone else, as long as he is around. The tower is left with no purpose now that everything Rose has done amounts to nothing, absorbed by other companies and moved to other locations, so Leon is able to work on using it for himself, setting up a place where he can be on top again, for a little while, until he has his championship back. The Battle Tower will serve as good training, to keep him at the top of his game while he carries out the rest of his plan.

Gloria is too busy right now, getting settled into her new role and helping Hop find his own place in the world, so Leon is able to use that time for his own work, waiting for the right time to strike. As champion, and with him serving as chairman, she will answer directly to him, so they will have plenty of time to talk, and he will have plenty of time to use her crush against her, to make sure that she learns her place, to make sure that she is completely under his control.

Simply defeating her is not proper revenge for what she has done to him. He needs to overpower her in every way imaginable, so that he can prove that his strongest challenger yet is still nothing compared to him. Perhaps he has put too much stock into Pokemon battles; after all, there are so many other areas of life where he can win, where he can make sure that he remains undefeated.

~X~

Gloria smiles when Leon enters the room. She has not had much of chance to see him lately, so she can’t help but be a little bit excited for their first meeting as chairman and champion. It was difficult, seeing the flash of hurt in his eyes when she defeated him, but then he seemed so proud of her, and she thought that meant everything was okay. And, of course, with Rose out of the picture, that leaves a perfect position for Leon to fill. As far as Gloria can tell, he’s happy now, which means she can allow herself to be happy, as champion.

And it means that she will get to see a lot of Leon. As a kid, she had a crush on the champion, always hoping that she would have a chance to meet him once she found out that he was Hop’s older brother, but it was never anything serious back then. Once she did get to meet him, though, and once he endorsed her for the gym challenge, her feelings began to grow and grow, until she knew that she was falling hopelessly in love with him. He was always there to help her, to give her encouragement and advice, and now, she gets to see him all the time, starting with their very first meeting.

“There isn’t really that much to discuss,” Leon tells her, “but I still wanted to meet with you, since we haven’t had much of a chance to talk lately.”

“We’ve both been busy,” she replies. “You’ve done such a great job with the Battle Tower, though. I think it’d be really fun to come challenge you some time!” An unreadable expression flashes across his face, but in an instant, his smile is back.

“Now, now, you know you should save your energy for your actual training,” he tells her. “You’ve got a really important job, so you can’t slack off messing with my trainers. Besides, you’re the champion. Don’t you think it might discourage others if you start showing up at places like that? How can anyone else expect to beat you?”

She hadn’t thought about it that way before, but now that he has pointed it out, she feels stupid for even saying it, blushing and sinking down a bit in her seat. “Sorry, I guess you’re right.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, Gloria. Just make sure you run things like that before me first, and everything will be fine. I’m not just your boss, I’m also someone with a lot of champion experience, so you’re pretty luck to have me here,” he says with a playful grin. He’s right, she is very lucky. If not for him, she might make a complete fool of herself, being as young and clueless as she is, but Leon has years of experience to help him guide her. She knows that she can always count on him to give her good advice.

“Thank you, I’m really kind of clueless,” she says. “I’ve been mostly signing autographs a lot lately? Since the new season hasn’t started yet, that’s all anyone needs me for. Oh, and meeting with gym leaders, and stuff like that, so we can get to know each other better. I’ve heard this year is weird because we’ve got two new gym leaders.”

“We’re figuring it out just fine. Opal and Piers are both willing to offer guidance to their successors from the sidelines, so I’m not too worried about either of them. Especially not Marnie, since she grew up around that sort of thing. And Bede was so close to the former chairman, he knows the inner workings of the league as well,” Leon explains. “Really, the only one that I would be worried about is you, but…”

“I’ve got you to count on!” she replies, beaming at him. She really is so lucky, to be able to work so closely with Leon, who is nice and handsome and who takes such good care of her.

“Exactly. You know, Gloria, I never could say this when you were still a challenger, but you’re very pretty,” he says, catching her off guard. Her heart skips a beat, and she can feel her face turning red as he smiles at her from across the table. She knows that she did not mishear him, but is he really complimenting her like this?

“I, um…thank you, I…” she mumbles, not sure what else to say to him. Leon keeps giving her that smile, one that she feels like could melt her right where she sits.

“You don’t need to be embarrassed, Gloria, it’s just us. And I mean every word that I say. You must have realized that you were my favorite back then, right?”

“Your…favorite?”

“My favorite challenger!” He gives her such a bright grin as he proudly declares this. “I shouldn’t play favorites, but how could I help it? You were so cute, and you got so many fans, so fast. You seemed like a champion in the making, and I think everyone had a feeling you were going to be the one to make it to the end. I couldn’t help myself…back then, I was pretty smitten with you.”

Back then, he was…? Her heart is pounding so loud in her ears now that she feels like she can hardly hear him, and still all of his words hit straight into her heart. He liked her when she was a gym challenger? Does that mean that he still likes her now? All of that excitement helps cover the strange feeling she gets when he said that he was playing favorites, that she seemed like a champion in the making, that he couldn’t help himself. When he says things like that, it almost makes her wonder if she really beat him.

But he wouldn’t throw the match, and the fact that he might like her back overshadows any of those concerns, anyway. Gloria can’t find her words to reply, and Leon laughs. “You’re still so cute…honestly, looking at you now, it’s hard to help myself. I promised myself I would try and keep our relationship professional, but you make that so difficult.”

“But…you don’t mean…”

“You wouldn’t mind, would you? There’s a lot of reasons why we wouldn’t be able to tell anyone, so everything would have to be a secret, but you don’t mind that, right?” he asks. “There are a lot of people who would say that I’m too old for you, but I think that’s kind of silly. If you’re old enough to go out on your own and old enough to be champion, you should be old enough to decide if you like a guy, right? You do like me, don’t you, Gloria?”

The way he speaks, so casually and so quickly about things that set her head spinning, makes it hard for her to do anything other than nod. It all seems like a dream, for Leon to outline reasons they shouldn’t be together all while explaining that he does not care a bit about any of them, and that he would still want to be with her anyway. He wants to be with her! Leon thinks that she’s cute, and he really, really wants to be with her, even if they have to keep it secret. She does not mind that, if it’s the only price that she has to pay for getting to be with Leon.

“See, I thought you did,” he says with a warm smile. “And even if the age weren’t an issue, it might seem like a conflict of interest. You’re the champion and I used to be the champion, and now I’m the chairman. You can see what people might think about that, right?”

Again, she has that flash of a thought that he could have thrown the match and let her win, just because he likes her. He could have let her win even though she didn’t deserve it, which would make her completely in over her head as a champion, but she tries not to think about that. Leon would never do something like that, and even if he did…well, she isn’t in over her head as long as she has him by her side, giving her advice! And apparently he will be there not just as her senior, but as her secret boyfriend as well! It is enough to make any worries go away.

“I don’t care about any of that,” she says. “I know how I feel about you, and if no one else understands, then we just don’t have to tell them. That’s what you said, isn’t it? We would just have to keep it a secret.”

Leon smiles even bigger, his brightest smile that captivated millions over the years. It is hard to believe that a smile like that could be meant just for her, but it leaves her heart racing. All of this seems too good to be true, but she knows that it’s real, that Leon really likes her. Leon wants her, and wants to be with her, and there is nothing in the world that could ever make her happier than that.

“We’re all alone in here,” he tells her. “Let me show you just how much I like you.”

Everything is more too fast, and the next thing she knows, her clothes are on the floor and his pants are undone, and he has her bent over their meeting table. Gloria wants to protest that this is too much for her, but if she does that, she knows that Leon will think that she is immature, and he might rethink all of this. If he says that this is natural, that moving this quickly is perfectly natural, then she should be just fine. Worrying about it is just a sign of immaturity, and she needs to push all of that out of her mind right away.

And, even if she is nervous, there is still a part of her that wants it, whether things are moving too fast or not. Leon touches her, and that feeling grows, making her whimper for him as he fingers her, teasing her for how wet she is as he tells her that means she must be ready for him, that she must have wanted him for a long time now. It is so easy to trust every word out of his mouth, to simply go along with everything that he says, trusting him because he is the adult and he has the experience. He knows what he is doing, and what she should be doing, and she wants to impress him, and prove that he was right in falling for her.

Gloria wants Leon to love her, and so she is willing to let him fuck her right here and now, and she is willing to believe him when he tells her that this is exactly what she has always been wanting, that the dampness between her legs is the most obvious proof of that. She’s ready for him, even if a part of her mind says she isn’t. It is better to listen to the part that says she is, and better still to just listen to Leon, who know places his hands on her hips, and rubs the tip of his cock against her.

It feels strange, so hard and hot, and she is about to ask him if he is sure that he can fit it inside of her when he goes for it, pushing forward with one swift motion that leaves her screaming out in pain, certain that he _can’t_ fit it, but that he’s going to find a way anyway. For quite some time, she feels nothing but the pain that seems to rip through her whole body, blinding her and making it impossible to process anything else. Leon tells her to relax, but his voice sounds so far away, and listening to him is as hard as trying not to cry.

But Gloria wants to like it, because Leon is doing this to her, because Leon is finally giving her a chance. No matter what it takes, she is going to see this through and she is going to like it. As hard as it may be to relax, she is going to manage that somehow, taking deep breaths and forcing her tears not to fall. She can hear his voice behind her, sounding so far away as he speaks, telling her that she is doing a good job, and that he is very proud of her for taking it so well on her first time.

That makes it easier, and having his encouragement makes her want to keep trying. Even if her first time is not perfect, by the end of it she can almost see why people think that sex is good, and she thinks she just needs a little more practice. Practice that she is sure to get, now that she knows that Leon likes her and wants to be with her. She is sore and she is tired, but Leon came, his seed filling her as he moaned, so she knows that it was good for him, and that is all that matters right now.

If it’s good, he will keep coming back for more, and the two of them can continue in their secret relationship, and she will get more used to it, and she will get better at it, until she loves it just as much as he does.

~X~

Gloria is so naive that it is laughable. She falls for everything that he says, believing every word of it, all because she thinks the former champion and current chairman definitely has to be a trustworthy man. The fact that he is her best friend’s idolized big brother has a hand in that as well, and he is able to leave that meeting room with Gloria completely wrapped around his finger, just like he wanted.

Fucking his frustrations out on her definitely helps calm him down in the short-term, even if it does not completely ease him of his need to make her pay. It is a nice bonus, having that access to her body while he works on his plans, and it will make things a lot easier to be able to use however he wants. There are still some flaws to the plan that he needs to work out, but he will keep pushing ahead, trusting that she will keep their relationship a secret because he told her to.

He could see the look in her eyes, when he told her that she was his favorite challenger. In addition to working on bringing her down from her pedestal, he is doing everything that he can to break her confidence as well. Now that he has planted a seed of doubt in her heart, he just needs to tend to it, giving her subtle reminders of what he has said, to make her think, more and more often, that he _let_ her win, that she would never be champion without him. He may have genuinely lost to her that day, but he knows that it was just a fluke, so it is better to have her believing he orchestrated the whole thing, until she does not believe in herself at all. By the end, she’ll practically be begging him to take over for her again, certain that he deserves it more than she does.

And that is without factoring in the scandal that she will soon be involved in.

He can only trust in her ability to keep the secret no matter what happens, constantly reinforcing that whenever they are alone together. For right now, he has no other plan to deal with it, but it could happen any day now. Whenever they are alone, he has her on her back or against a wall or bent over or bouncing on his lap, fucking her harder and faster each time, as she gets more and more used to his cock. Slowly but surely, he is turning her into a slut meant for his pleasure only, and completely addicted to him.

Gloria did not like it at first, even though she lied and told him that she did. He could tell that he was too rough with her, even when he was trying to hold back all of his anger with her. She is a trooper, though, and suffered through it and came back for more, and now she is at the point where she wants it, where she is so hopelessly addicted that she can hardly live without it. There is nothing Gloria looks forward to more than having Leon fuck her senseless, and every time, he fills her with his come, holding nothing back.

She only tries to ask him about it once, but he is able to brush her off with a simple, “Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.” Gloria is still reluctant, but she does trust him, so she takes his word for it, even though he has not properly reassured her or given her any reason why she _shouldn’t_ worry. She just keeps letting him do how he pleases, and as far as he knows, she takes no measures outside of their encounters.

He never uses any protection, and she is not on any birth control. If she were to start taking any, if she were to take any precautions without telling him, then it could get in the way of everything, but she is young and had not started thinking about that sort of thing before him, and now, he works so hard to keep her convinced that everything is okay that she continues to do nothing.

Eventually, he is going to get her knocked up, and that will be the start of her downfall as a champion. He will beg her not to reveal him as the father, putting her in an impossible situation as she tries to defend herself, all without exposing the man at fault.

~X~

The biggest problem in his flawless plan is Hop. For a while now, Hop has been busy with his new job, working as Sonia’s assistant, so he has not seen a lot of Gloria. However, when he is not super busy with work, his basic training complete and Sonia’s own workload a little lower, he wants to spend more time with his best friend. Gloria already knows that even Hop can’t know the truth of their relationship, so Leon is not worried about that, but his little brother knows both of them very well, so he is likely able to sense a change right from the beginning.

He comes to visit her one day when Leon had a meeting scheduled with her, and knocks on the door to the meeting room while Leon has her bent over the table. With his hand clamped over Gloria’s mouth, he says, “It’ll be just a minute! The champion and I are reviewing a few details about next season!”

When he is done with her, both of them as presentable as possible, he opens the door and scolds Hop for interrupting an important meeting. “If it were still Chairman Rose in charge, he wouldn’t be as forgiving. You’re lucky I’m your big brother, but don’t let something like that happen again. Gloria could get in trouble if you keep pestering her when she’s busy like that.”

“Sorry, sorry, I wasn’t really thinking,” Hop replies. “By the way, you’re taking to your new job pretty well.” It probably isn’t meant to be a dig at Leon’s failures, at the fact that he is no longer where he wants to be, but when Hop says it, it feels like a knife dug straight into his stomach.

So Leon replies, “So are you. You must like Gloria a whole lot, or being Sonia’s assistant a whole lot, to not take all of this hard.”

A strange look flashes across Hop’s face, and Leon realizes too late that he has just intentionally hurt his younger brother. And yet he does not feel nearly as bad about it as he knows that he should. Instead, he feels justified, because Hop took the first shot, whether he knows it or not, and Hop being here is a problem on its own. If he isn’t careful, Hop will find them out and ruin everything.

“Leon…” he hears Gloria say, not sure if she should scold him or not. But he and Hop both flash her an identical smile, neither of them wanting to worry her. They give her the same smile, because they are brothers with the same smile, and because Hop is in love with Gloria and because Leon is pretending to be.

He has no idea if Hop figures out the extent of their relationship. It’s hard to tell if he knows that Leon is faking it as well, or if he just knows that there is something going on between them, but in that moment, he knows that Hop knows about them. Maybe he was not careful enough, or maybe brothers are just able to figure out these things about each other. After all, Leon has always known about Hop’s crush on Gloria, without ever needing to be told about it.

The only question now is what Hop is going to do. If he gets in the way, then that could ruin everything, and Leon can’t let that happen. He has to make sure that his plan goes off without a hitch; he has already come so far

“Anyway, Lee, we’ll catch you later, alright? I’m borrowing her for just a little while!” As the two of them leave together, he can see no sign of Hop’s frustration, but he knows that it must be there, bubbling below the surface. He has always lost to Leon in every regard, so losing Gloria to him must be a pretty big blow, and coming right after Gloria herself took one of his dreams from him, his once chance to defeat Leon.

He must like her a lot if he isn’t letting that get in the way of his feelings for her, though. That is what makes his feelings so dangerous; if a loss like that was not enough to make him dislike her, then he is probably willing to do anything for her, and anything to be close to her. He would try and break them up if he had the chance, and if he knows that Leon is faking it, then he will try and get Gloria to believe that as well. If Hop truly loves her, and if he truly resents Leon for always winning, then he will be the one to ruin everything.

But all is not lost. The more he thinks on it, the more he remembers the positives. Hop resents him, but looks up to him just as much. More than likely, he probably does not know how fake the relationship is, and probably believes that Leon really loves Gloria. He has always believed in Leon, and it would be easy to convince Hop, about as easy as it was to convince Gloria, that this needs to a stay a secret, so that they can be happy together. He can get Hop to stay silent, just as long as Hop continues to believe in him.

And it does not have to end there, either. He only stole his little brother’s crush because of who she is, not to break Hop’s heart. A good big brother would at least share her, and that will help matters quite a bit. Both of them will go along with it if he convinces them that it is okay, and they can even be public, because their relationship would not be taboo. It would be the perfect cover for everything, especially if he makes Hop wear a condom, so that he doesn’t directly interfere.

After all, the rest of the world will not know that Hop uses protection, or that there is another man. Hop will be the perfect cover, taking the blame for Gloria’s scandal, and Leon can swoop in to take care of them both, a good big brother, supporting Hop and the new champion, while he continues to use them both for his own game. It looks like the fun is only just beginning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things get a bit darker with Hop getting involved, next chapter will be his POV

Gloria is happy, as happy as she could be. Everything in her life has changed lately, but she feels like it has all changed for the better, and she can’t believe how lucky she is. She never thought that she would have the chance to get this close to Leon, and though she still has no idea what he could possibly see in her, what reason he could have for wanting her as much as she wants him, she is certain that everything is going perfectly for her.

He has given her no reason to doubt his feelings, keeping her close whenever he can, and the only real complication is the fact that they have to keep their relationship a secret from everyone. Even then, she is happy, not needing to share it with anyone else to know that it is real. She has gotten better at sex, gotten to the point that it does not hurt at all, and Leon tells her all the time how good at it she is, and how much he loves fucking her. The two of them do not do much else together, but that is just because most other couple things involve being outside, in public, and they can’t do that.

At least, she assumes that is why they don’t do much beyond fuck. Either way, as long as it makes Leon happy, she is always more than happy to do it. She has her fun besides being with him anyway, because she still has Hop to hang out with. The two of them are both busy, with her getting used to her champion duties and Hop studying under Sonia to become a professor, but whenever they have the chance, they try and have as much fun as they can, since they have such little free time otherwise.

The two of them have always been close, but it feels kind of funny now, spending so much time with him when the other person she spends this much time with is his older brother. His older brother that she can’t tell Hop she is secretly dating, though she wants to believe that he would understand, that he would support them and not tell anyone else about them. He is her best friend, after all, and would want the best for her, and of course, she knows that he adores his big brother.

So it comes as a pretty big surprise to her when Hop approaches her one day, while she and Leon are together. He shows up unannounced, but Leon does not seem surprised to see him at all, letting him in like he was expecting him, even though he never mentioned that he was inviting anyone over.

“Hop, what are you doing here?” Gloria asks. She wonders if she is supposed to feel guilty, if she should have tried to hide or something. After all, here she is in Leon’s apartment, when the two of them are not supposed to be anything more than friends. But Hop looks no more surprised to see her than Leon is to see him.

“Lee said I could come over,” he explains, and Leon nods.

“He has something that he wants to talk to you about,” Leon adds. “Go on, why don’t you ask her?”

“Gloria, I wanted to know if you would go out me?” he asks, before clearing his throat. “What I mean is…well, we spend a lot of time together already, but I meant something more serious! Something like…what you do with Lee.”

It takes time for her to process everything that Hop has said to her, and she is left so confused that she is not sure what to make of all of this. The biggest thing that stands out to her is the implication that Hop already knows everything going on between her and Leon, and while she is left wondering just how the hell he figured that out, it leads her into realizing what it is that he is asking of her.

If Leon was expecting him, that means that he knew Hop was coming to ask her this, and it is likely that Leon is the one that told Hop about the two of them. Gloria is not mad at him for that, since she has been wondering if Hop could know as well, but it still confuses her that he did not even consider asking her first, and that he and Hop discussed their relationship without her, and that Leon gave him permission to ask something like this.

Does that mean that Hop likes her? Gloria knows that she loves spending time with him, but the two of them are just friends, they’ve always been just friends. When they hang out, it is only as friends, and she never stopped to consider that Hop could see it as something more. He never did anything to imply that, at least not anything that she would have noticed, and she can’t get her head to stop spinning.

“At least consider it,” Leon says, trying to bring her back to the present. She realizes that Hop looks a little discouraged, since she has been silent for so long. “I know it seems a little out of the blue, but Hop and I have talked about it a lot, you know! I think this would be good for both of you!”

He says it in such a carefree tone, cheerful and confident, like he is suggesting a new sponsorship for her, or trying to convince her to try a new restaurant, not asking her to date his brother. Is he trying to get rid of her, even though she thought that the two of them were as happy as could be? Or does he think that she could somehow go out with both of them? Is Leon trying to say that he wants to share her with his little brother?

“I don’t…I mean, I’ve never…” she tries to say, but nothing comes to her. Of course she’s never dated two guys at once, because she has never dated anyone at all before Leon, but looking between the two of them, she has no idea what to say. They both wear matching smiles, managing to look so hopeful for her response, and she is struck by their family resemblance.

There are enough differences there that she can pick out why she fell for Leon while only ever seeing Hop as a good friend, but even so, the boys do look alike. Hop is handsome, like his brother, and she knows that the two of them always have a good time together. If Leon thinks that it would be a good idea, then maybe she really should just go for it, just to see what happens. She could do a lot worse than going out with Hop, after all, so it is not as if Leon is asking anything particularly difficult of her.

“Yeah, we can try that,” she finally says, giving them a smile of her own. As long as she can keep Leon happy, then Gloria is up for trying just about anything. Even being shared with his little brother.

~X~

Hop has a rule that he has to follow when he is with Gloria, and that is that, should he have sex with her, he has to wear a condom. It seems strange to her, that he is so strict about that with Hop when he never uses any protection, but she still does not question anything that Leon says or does, not wanting to look stupid, if it is something that she should understand.

She almost expects Leon to want to watch over them whenever they fuck, since he is so strict about how Hop does it, and also was so enthusiastic about making this seem like it would be a group thing. But instead, it seems that Hop just gets to be with her when Leon can’t, so that she is never left lonely when she is not busy with her own work. That’s nice, and not too different from how things were when she and Hop were just friends, except now there is the expectation that she is going to fuck him as well.

The first time, she is a little hesitant, while Hop assures her that everything is going to be just fine. “You’ve done it with Lee, right? You don’t have anything to worry about, since it’s not your first time. If you want to close your eyes for a little bit, that would be okay.”

She isn’t sure how that is supposed to make things better, but as Hop rolls on the condom, she lays back and closes her eyes, wondering if this is really something that she can do. In a way, she feels like she is cheating on Leon, even though he is the one who talked her into this, and gave his full approval of the arrangement. But she just got used to having sex with him, and now he expects her to have sex with someone completely different, and expects her to love it, on top of that.

But then Hop is on top of her, and her eyes snap open and he is smiling at her, her best friend. He looks good, and she remembers the family resemblance in this moment, and she decides that, yes, she can definitely do this. She returns his smile, and then Hop slowly pushes into her, and they are both left moaning for each other. Like this, she realizes just how much she likes the sound of his voice.

“There we go,” he mumbles, once he is completely buried inside of her. She has never had sex with someone wearing a condom before, but as far as she can tell, there is absolutely no difference from what it feels like with Leon. In fact, she can’t even tell that he is wearing one, so she is not sure why anyone would make a big deal about it feeling different. It feels good just like that, and she says as much, whimpering it to him.

“It feels good?” Hop asks. “Does it feel as good as it does with Lee?” The question catches her off guard. Even though she knows that he knows about all of that, she never expected him to bring up, much less while the two of them were alone together. And how is she supposed to answer a question like that, anyway?

Her hesitation is enough of an answer in his eyes, and his expression suddenly shifts, his smile completely fading. Gloria does not know what to make of this sudden change, as Hop says, “Right, I forgot you just prefer him in every way. I guess I never had a chance, huh?”

“Hop, I…” she tries to say, but then he gives her such a rough thrust that she is not able to speak, left crying out for him instead. His entire demeanor seems to shift all at once, like he becomes someone else, and gone is the gentle best friend that assured her everything would be just fine.

“You’ve been fucking him this whole time, right behind my back, and you never even told me,” he groans, as he starts pounding into her, becoming aggressive with her rather quickly. She has no chance to say anything to him, because he keeps her moaning and crying out for him. “You just kept it to yourself, cos you were afraid you couldn’t keep using me if I knew. That’s what it was, right? Lee can’t take you on dates, but I can, so you thought you could play both of us!”

None of that is true…or at least, she did not think it was, not until this moment. Just like her fear that Leon might have let her win, now she has this fear that she has been taking advantage of both of them. It should all be fine now, since they want to share her, but that would not excuse her actions before.

“I didn’t…” she tries to whimper, but then Hop is fucking her harder, not giving her a chance to try and excuse herself, not giving her a chance to try and come up with some sort of explanation for what she may or may not have done to her best friend. Now, the only thing that she can do is let him have his way with her, hoping that this is enough to make it up to him.

She had never realized his feelings for her, just the same as she had never realized that she might have hurt him by staying close to him without ever planning to be anything more than his friend. As for not telling him about Leon, that is just because Leon told her that she never could, and she did not want to make Leon mad at her. She does not want either of them to be mad at her, but she thought now everything was okay, because Leon told her that it was okay.

“You’re mine now,” Hop says, his voice sounding unfamiliar. “You’re his, but that’s okay, cos you’re mine too, I’m gonna make you mine, so he can’t…so neither of you can…” Though he does not finish his sentence, she thinks that she has a pretty good idea what it is that he is thinking right now. So that neither of them can take something else from him.

No matter how hard he tries to pretend that these things do not bother him, she knows how hard he has taken it all, and even this must be like a big loss to him. It isn’t her fault that she did not fall for him like she fell for his big brother, any more than it is her fault that Leon loves her back, and wants to keep her at his side, but maybe it is her fault that she did not understand Hop’s feelings, and behaved in such an insensitive manner.

None of that should matter now, though. The two of them are already together, because Leon set them up, and she is letting him fuck her as hard as he wants, past the point where it starts to hurt, so that she can try and make things up to him. Even if she did not hurt him on purpose, shouldn’t she try to make things up to him?

Gloria is not sure if she likes this side of Hop, and she is not sure if she wants to keep doing this now that she has seen this side, but from the way that he acts, it seems pretty clear that she is to blame for that side even existing. Maybe if she does everything just right, then Hop will go back to normal, and she will not be left with all these second thoughts.

It hurts, but she can endure it, because Leon told her to, and because Hop is her best friend.

Even when he comes inside of her, it does not feel any different than if he were not wearing a condom, which is really amazing to her. She can enjoy that part at least, and while she is trying to catch her breath, she moves to wipe her tears, hoping that Hop does not notice she cried a little bit. He notices right away, however, and just like that, his demeanor changes once again.

“Gloria, I…I’m sorry,” he says, pulling her close to him in a tight embrace. The two of them are still naked, and his skin is so warm against hers. He is relaxing, and smells a lot like Leon, but there are subtle differences that she can’t quite put her finger on. It does not really matter right now, because she can at least relax like this, reminding herself that this is still Hop, still her best friend in the whole world.

Whatever came over him is gone now, and when he holds her like this, she feels like everything is going to be okay after all, like she never actually had anything to worry about. In the back of her mind, she still feels guilt for what she has driven him to, but maybe he already has it out of his system. Maybe things are already going to go back to normal, and she can have fun with him, and fall for him as well, so that this relationship does not feel as awkward.

“I’m so sorry, I don’t know why I…” He trails off, not sure how to put what he is trying to say, and instead, he just squeezes her tighter. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just…it’s been hard for me, but that’s no excuse. I’m not going to do anything that stupid ever again, you can be sure of that!”

“It’s alright, Hop,” she says, her voice quite as she returns his embrace, rubbing his back in small, even circles. “I’m sorry if I ever hurt you. I never meant to do that. Leon just told me I shouldn’t tell you, and I didn’t know…I didn’t know that I was…”

“How could you have known? It’s not like I ever told you,” he replies, his voice a little jokey, the same tone she remembers from several self-deprecating jokes he has made over the years. This is her Hop, no doubt about it, and she nuzzles closer to him, so comforted by this fact. She does not need to be afraid of him, not when he is being gentle with her like this.

“Well, I know now,” she says, “and I’m going to make sure I don’t hurt you. We’ll have fun like this, I just know it.”

“I won’t ever hurt you again either,” he agrees. “This is really like a dream come true for me, even if Lee’s in the picture. I won’t do anything to mess it up.”

When he says it in such a sincere tone of voice, she can’t help but believe him.

~X~

She doesn’t tell Leon about any of that, even though, when she remembers the way Hop looked at her, like he was an entirely different person, she does get a little scared. In her heart, she reminds herself that he promised it would never happen again, and she wants to believe him. After all, this is Hop, and so, she sees no point in making Leon worry, or worse, get mad at Hop.

She just appreciates the time she gets to spend with Leon that much more, and he manages to monopolize her time for a while, before she has another date night with Hop. The two of them actually get to go out, and they are able to have a lot of fun together. He is a lot more openly affectionate, now that he is involved in the relationship, and so, they get quite a bit of media attention, since a reporter happens to get a glimpse of them together, and the next thing she knows, she spends the night avoiding the paparazzi.

“Lee mentioned being the champion was rough, but I never knew it was this rough,” Hop says with a laugh, once the two have managed to shake them for a little while.

“It’s a lot to get used to,” she replies, but she doesn’t mind so much now that she has gotten used to it. And if the story breaks that she and Hop are dating, then she supposes it is not that big of a deal. There have been rumors and speculation since the gym challenge, and ever since she became champion, the rumors spread that much more, because the two still hang out all the time. It will hardly be a scandal, and as long as no one finds out the truth, that it is his older brother that started everything, and his older brother that she is in love with, then she knows it will be fine.

The two of them are still able to have fun, even with flashbulbs going off wherever they go, and by the time they get back to where she has been staying since realizing that traveling to and from Postwick every day was a bit much, she is giddy from the excitement. Leon is busy tonight, so the two of them will be completely alone, and she turns to Hop with a grin. “I had a lot of fun tonight!”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what you want me around for, right?” he asks. He is still smiling, but his tone is starting to turn cold, and Gloria can feel herself growing uneasy. Hop almost sounds like he did last time, but she must be imagining things. He promised her nothing like that happened again, and he says that he cares about her, that everything about this is like a dream come true.

And she knows that he wouldn’t lie to her, not about something like that, not when he knows how scared she was last time.

“What? Nothing to say?” he asks, and now his smile starts to falter, and she can see that same look in his eyes, and she is terrified. Where did she go wrong? They had a lovely night and she never even mentioned Leon once, making sure to keep her focus on Hop. “Is it cos I’m right?”

“Hop, what are you talking about? We always have fun together,” she tries, not sure what the right thing to say is, though she is fairly certain that is not it. He laughs and shakes his head.

“I wonder what’s gonna happen when Lee can take you out, _if_ he ever does,” he continues. “All night, I bet you were thinking about how fun it is, but how much more fun it _could_ be, what a shame it was that you had to spent the night with his kid brother instead of him.”

“Hop, please, you know that’s not…” It’s not entirely true, because she does have fun with him, and she does not wish to spend that time with Leon _instead_. Naturally, she wishes that Leon could take her out like that too, but not at the cost of the time she gets to spend with her best friend. But he isn’t just her best friend anymore, and she really would do anything to be closer to Leon, to be able to feel like the two of them are really together, so maybe…

Hop shakes his head and says, “We’ve got the rest of the night to ourselves, so I’m sorry I’m not my brother, but we can’t let it go to waste.” When he gets like this, it is hard to even think of him as Hop. Gloria feels like she does not know him, and she is terrified of him, numbly following his orders and getting on the bed like he wants her to, then getting back up when he says, “At least take your clothes off first, yeah?”

He gets on top of her, and she wants to ask him about the condom, because she knows he did not put one on, didn’t even try to get one out or open it, but he speaks before she can ask, as if reading her mind. “Don’t worry, Lee won’t find out. I’ll pull out, anyway.”

He doesn’t.

Hop pins her hands above her head and fucks her until he starts to calm down again, comes inside of her without pulling out, and then turns back into his old self, looking at her with wide, sad eyes before laying his head on her chest, defeated.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his voice low. “I didn’t mean to…I got carried away again.” He does not apologize for coming inside of her, but she supposes once will not hurt, just as long as he goes back to wearing a condom in the future. But she is not so sure about everything else, not sure about his apology, or if she trusts him to keep his word anymore. Either way, though, there is nothing she can do about it.

~X~

“Just close your eyes, remember?” he says one day, being so gentle with her, almost like their first time. In the back of her mind, though, Gloria knows that this is not going to last long. She has no idea what has happened to Hop, why he does these things, why he turns into another person, why he is so jealous of her feelings for Leon, but she just closes her eyes like he suggests, pretending that that is what she is nervous about.

It is better to just keep her eyes closed the whole time, so that she can’t see the way his face shifts into that cruel expression that she has come to know all too well. He has gone back to wearing condoms like he is supposed to, so she is glad that he at least was telling the truth then, even if he does lie every time that he promises never to hurt her again.

Every now and then, he does let her keep her eyes closed until the end, but sometimes, he will squish her cheeks in his fingers, startling her so that she has to look up at him. When he gets possessive like that, she does not know what to do, but the best option is always whatever results in Hop being the least upset with her. Gloria becomes less and less sure about this every day, but she still has not told Leon about it, and Hop continues to go from hot to cold with her, and continues to make empty promises that it will never happen again.

She just holds on until he is done with her, holds on until he is finished being rough with her, and then he goes back to the way he always used to be, as he begs for forgiveness. Maybe she should not be surprised by all of this, but she never thought he was that sore of a loser. Looking back, though, the signs were there, all throughout their gym challenge.

He tried to keep his cheery demeanor with her, but she saw the way he nearly fell apart over his losses, and she has known for years how much he looks up to Leon, how he has always dreamed of surpassing him. She just never put it all together, never realized how much she would crush him by taking that dream from him, or how much worse it would be to discover that the girl he liked was not only in love with, but also involved with, his older brother. All this time, she must have been giving Hop too much credit, assuming him to be a lot less fragile than he actually is, and that is why she lets things continue.

Eventually, though, she does try to talk to Leon. She is afraid of getting Hop into trouble, so she decides to tone things down a bit, to not bring up all the details involved, to not let Leon know just how far Hop has gone. She definitely will not tell him about the one time Hop broke that important rule, since it really did only happen one time. Gloria just wants him to know that she is worried about Hop, and that she is not sure that this relationship is working out.

Leon does not seem concerned though. He brushes her off, saying, “Don’t you need him, though?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he was a little bit right about some things. You do need him to go out with, since you can’t go out with me,” Leon explains. “At least, that’s what I always thought, when I found out how much you saw him after we got together. I kind of thought you wanted this whole thing.”

When he says that, it only serves to further convince her. She never thought that she was using Hop, but Hop did, and now Leon, the person she trusts most in the world, tells her that it looked like she was. If that is the case, then maybe she was, maybe she has always been taking advantage of Hop. Whether this relationship is what she wants or not, it might be exactly what she deserves, and it might be her punishment to have to deal with Hop’s unusual behavior.

If that is the case, then she should see this through until the end. She tells Leon as much, leaving out her thoughts on the matter, only saying, “I suppose I should keep giving him a chance. I should at least see it through.”

“There we go, good girl,” he replies with the smile that she loves so much, the smile that Hop used to be able to match, though she sees it less and less often lately. “And, anyway, I need him too. If the press thinks you’re dating my little brother, they’re going to be less likely to become suspicious about us. This is the only way for us to be together, and that’s what you want, right, Gloria?”

“Of course it is,” she replies, soothed for the time being. “I love you, Leon.”

~X~

Hop can’t explain what comes over him when he is with Gloria, but ever since being given this chance, ever since Leon approached him with this strange offer, he has not been able to resist trying to get more. Of course, Lee could tell that he had a crush, and Lee could tell that he knew what was going on between them, that he was jealous, that he felt like he had lost again.

Generous big brother that he is, he offered to let him have his fun with Gloria as well, as much as he wants. It is more keeping her busy when Leon is not around, but he paints it as them sharing her. The only condition is that he has to use a condom when he fucks her- under no circumstances is he allowed to fuck her without one, because he is not allowed to get her pregnant.

But Leon doesn’t watch them to make sure he follows the rules, and Gloria closes her eyes whenever he asks her to. She doesn’t even notice the difference, the clueless thing.


	3. Chapter 3

Hop doesn’t really want to be this terrible to Gloria, but whenever he remembers the way she hid something so important from him, whenever he starts to think that she might have been stringing him along, while knowing she could never return his feelings, and whenever he remembers that she, no matter how unintentionally it may have been, stole his dream from him, deprived him of his one chance to try and prove that he is better than Lee.

And then there’s Lee, who continues to always be better than him in some way, who continues to one up Hop in every regard. He may have been able to get over his beef with Gloria, may have been able to accept it and be happy for her, were it not for the fact that Leon stole her away from him. It’s not as if he ever told his older brother just how much Gloria meant to him, but it was probably obvious enough, and it hurts.

Everything hurts so much all the time, and he has tried his best to keep it together, to keep anyone from ever finding out just how much he hurts, but as all of these things keep building up more and more, he is not able to keep control over himself, not in the heat of the moment. He wants to get back at both of them, for lying to him and hiding things from him and stealing his dreams, and only letting him as some pathetic act of pity. Or worse, something far more malicious on Leon’s part.

Hop has no real proof that Leon is using Gloria, but his brother has seemed off from the moment he lost his title. He knows that Leon has valued his championship more than anything in the world, and that it must have stung to lose it to anyone, let alone someone that had not even been on his radar at first. It seems awfully hard to believe that he would suddenly fall in love with Gloria and want to be with her, and from the start, Hop has suspected that Leon is using her. Bringing his younger brother into the relationship is a little too obvious to be as good-natured as he tries to pretend that it is, and Hop knows that there is something up with it.

He has a feeling that he knows exactly what that is, too. After all, Leon is not making it any secret that he is trying to get Gloria pregnant, since he does not use any form of protection. He has Hop there, a boyfriend that she can date in public, to take the fall when she does get pregnant, though that doesn’t explain why he wants the baby to be his, rather than Hop’s.

He knows that it helps that they are brothers, because the baby is going to look like Hop even if it’s Leon’s, but it should not matter whose it is, and might even be better for his scheme if it really is Hop’s. Instead, he seems intent on making sure that Hop wears a condom, all so that he can have the satisfaction of Gloria having _his_ child. Is his desire for revenge that strong? What does he hope to gain from it?

Hop does not care either way, because he does not do what Leon tells him to do. It is easy enough to trick Gloria into thinking that he wore the condom, and then, once he is on top of her, that angry, bitter side of him takes over again, and he forgets his love for her, forgets how much he wants this to be genuine, and he gives into that side and fucks her until she is scared of him. That makes it even easier for her to not notice what he is doing, but then he feels awful, guilt always creeping in as he realizes that he has once again taken things too far.

All he wants is for her to love him, but then, that isn’t what he wants, because he wants to get back at her for hurting him. He wants her to feel even a fraction of what he has felt, and he wants the baby to be his, because there is not much that he is able to take away from Leon at this point, but he might at least be able to have that. If he could get Gloria to fall for him and leave his brother entirely, that might hurt him, but if Leon is only using her, maybe he will not need to. Maybe he will already have what he needs.

Hop just wishes that he understood his brother’s plan better, so that he could plan around it, but instead, he just has to get whatever satisfaction that he can. He wants Gloria to love him, to prefer him and leave with him, and to have his baby, and he wants her to feel what he has felt, he wants to hurt her, and most of all, he wants to hurt the brother that he adores and idolizes.

His feelings are so conflicted and confusing that he never knows what to do, or what he should be thinking. Hop hardly recognizes himself anymore, and is left terrified when he actually takes the time to try and sort through any of this rationally. He is lost in his bitterness, and never able to find a way out, and Gloria is getting more and more scared of him, the more he slips up. She no longer trusts him when he promises that he won’t do it again, because she already knows that he will.

Sometimes, he expects Leon to come to him about it, to tell him to knock it off or even tell him that he has changed his mind, that Hop is no good for her. Instead, they continue to keep a healthy distance, just like always, as they continue to share a girlfriend.

~X~

It isn’t particularly surprising when Gloria actually finds out that she is pregnant. Naturally, she worries about it a lot more than Leon does, and he reassures her that everything is just fine, that this isn’t something to worry about. Never mind the fact that she is much too young, or the fact that no one can know about their relationship; he insists that she has nothing to worry about, and for whatever reason, she believes him. She always believes every word he says, trusting him so easily, even though he makes it pretty damn obvious that he is just tricking her.

At least, it’s obvious to Hop.

Neither he nor Gloria have any reason to think that the baby isn’t his, so Hop keeps his own hopes to himself. He has no idea how they are going to be able to tell, in the end, but he hopes that he can find a way to find out, and hopes even more that he can rub it in Leon’s face, that the baby will be his, and that he will have finally won something, finally gotten something that Leon wanted. Though he still does not know if this is going to matter in terms of his plan, it must be a pride thing, or he would not have been so strict about things.

At first, she does try to keep her pregnancy under wraps, and goes about things like normal. The new season is fast approaching, and she has to know that she is not going to be able to keep it hidden that whole time, but she tries to act like everything is just fine.

Until she shows up crying one night, and makes it apparent that she has told her mother, and that her mother didn’t take the news very well. She is clearly upset, but the first thing that Leon asks is if she told her mother the whole truth, more concerned for himself. Hop could hit him, he really could.

“I told her…I told her I’m dating Hop, like the news says, like I’m supposed to,” she says, barely able to get the words out between sobs. “She said…she said that didn’t matter, cos she thought me and Hop were smarter than that. She said she didn’t know how either of us could be this stupid, but that if I think I’m so grown up, then…then…”

“She kicked you out?” Hop asks in disbelief.

“I mean, I barely ever go home lately, so I guess it’s not a big deal,” Gloria says, wiping her eyes and trying to be strong, even though it is obvious that this is really hurting her. “I just…I just…”

“You know I’ll take care of you,” Leon says, stepping in to be decent at last, now that he knows that she has not put anything at risk. “You can always count on me, and I’ll make sure to take care of you, and our child.”

“And I’m here too,” Hop interjects, annoyed and unable to point out that the child might be his. “I mean, everyone _does_ think I’m the father, but even if I wasn’t- I mean, even though I’m not…” He wants Gloria to love him, so much. Why can she not see right now that Leon does not really care about her? Maybe Hop has not been the best to her, but isn’t that only because he cares? He knows that he cares more than his brother does, at least.

“You know, you’re going to have to come clean soon too,” Leon points out. “I’m surprised our mum hasn’t called you already, because she heard it from Gloria’s first. She probably won’t be too thrilled about it, and she’ll pressure you to take responsibility.”

“That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it? Taking the fall for you, and taking responsibility for you,” Hop mutters, before he can stop himself.

“You know I’ll be offering as much support as I can without exposing our relationship,” Leon says. “Maybe you are taking the fall, but it’s not as if you have nowhere to go.”

“Yeah, I _know_ ,” he snaps, unable to help himself. Lately, it seems harder and harder to keep his temper in check, even though he used to have no trouble with it. The two of them are just so frustrating, for entirely different reasons, and Hop is having a harder time tolerating it.

The argument comes to an end as quickly as it begins, at least, as Leon refuses to give into his obvious attempts to antagonize. They talk more about what they are going to do while Hop prepares himself for telling his mother about it, and the fallout that will result from that.

~X~

In the beginning, Gloria tries to keep it a secret, but even before she starts seriously showing, the story leaks to the press, and she has to officially confirm it. Someone spotted her coming from an appointment and the rumors got started, and she decided to face them head on, rather than lying and having to come clean later. The scandal that results from this is massive, and she spends most of her time hiding out inside, hating the questions she is met with when chased down by paparazzi.

Their young champion is pregnant, not even within a year of taking the title. Anyone would be shocked by it, and it makes sense that the die hard followers of the Pokemon League want to know every detail. Hop gets a fair bit of attention as well, since he is the father, at least to the public, but he manages to hold back from saying anything that Gloria does not want him to say.

He just looks forward to whenever he can get home to her, especially when Leon is not there, so that he can have her to himself, and try his best to make up for how he may have scared or hurt her before. Gloria barely does anything outside of her necessary champion duties, avoiding any publicity at all, so she is all alone most of the time, not that she seems to mind that.

She says that she finds this stuff a lot less stressful, and that she does mind being alone all day, because it gives her plenty of time to make sure that the apartment is clean. In fact, she has even taken up cooking, always having something ready for both of the brothers when they get home. It is rare that they all three get to eat together, as Hop is busy with his training, and Leon has to do whatever it is he does now. Mostly covering for the scandalous champion, while, more often than not, people talk about how _he_ never caused trouble like this, when it was him.

Slowly, his plan is starting to become more clear to Hop, who understands what he is trying to do. He wants to become champion again, and he does not just want to do it by defeating Gloria in battle. Maybe that might be part of it later, but he wants to make sure that her reputation is so destroyed, and that everyone is filled with such nostalgia for him, that they do not want to see her as champion. Leon wants to be reminded of how much everyone in Galar loves and needs him, and wants to ruin Gloria in their eyes.

Perhaps the father of the child really does not matter to a plan like that, so Hop will not be able to put a stop to it just by revealing it’s his baby- if it even is. Even so, he is past the point of caring about all of that. Whether Leon or Gloria is the champion, that dream has always been out of reach for him, and maybe things will be easier with Gloria, once it is Leon soaking up all the glory again. Maybe he can put some of his frustrations aside, and actually give her the love that she deserves.

And then maybe she might fall for him, and if the baby really _is_ his, then maybe he can convince her to leave Leon, and he’ll win at last, in his own way. Even if the baby isn’t, maybe he can still convince her. Maybe there is still a chance for them, if he can just treat her better, if he can just convince her that he never meant any of the bad things that he said to her. He does love her, deep down, because she has always been there, and it has always been her.

~X~

Leon’s plan, thus far, is working perfectly. Hop comes home one day to the two of them in the middle of an important discussion, with Gloria looking down, looking rather ashamed of herself as Leon tries to assure her that she is doing the right thing.

“You know I’m not disappointed in you at all. It was my idea, remember?”

“I know, but…I still feel like I’m letting everyone down,” she says. “This was supposed to be my first season, and I don’t even get to try…”

“You know you’ll probably have to step down before the season is over, don’t you?” he asks, and Hop understands exactly what they are talking about. “You’re going to have to go on maternity leave eventually, and you’re already starting to get big. Don’t you think it’s better to just take care of things now and start the season like this, rather than making things confusing for everyone?”

“I know, you’re right. And you’re going to do a great job like always. Thank you so much for helping me!”

“Any time,” he says, and Hop does not like the way that he smiles at her. The two of them have managed to ignore his presence completely, even though he knows they both know that he is home. “And, anyway, you’ll be happier like this, and you know I just want to see you happy, right?”

She nods, and he goes on to say, “You’re only going to get bigger, and people are going to talk even more. You like staying in to stay out of the news, right? That’s not possible when you’re acting as champion. There will be lots of mandatory events and interviews, and by the time the gym challenge is almost over, battling will probably be out of the question. It could be bad for the baby, you know? And that’s assuming you’re not on mandatory leave by then.”

“Thank you so much for helping me,” is all that she says, and Leon assures her that it’s no problem, and Hop could throw up, listening to how fake he is with her, and how grateful she is, all without realizing that this was just his plan, that he is so obviously _using_ her.

Between the scandal and her impending maternity leave, it only makes sense that the new champion will not be able to carry out her duties this season. It is so last minute, but fortunately for them, their interim chairman- with no efforts being put into preparing anyone else to fill that role, Hop has noticed- has plenty of experience, was the undefeated champion for a decade.

And since he is known as Gloria’s mentor, as well as the one to take her and his younger brother in, after the resulting pregnancy scandal, it only makes sense that he would be the one to fill the role for her. Leon is still as formidable as ever, and will still offer a challenge to whoever makes it to the finals this gym season, and Gloria, if he remains undefeated, will be able to resume her duties next year.

That being said, most people admit that they would prefer if Leon remained on his throne even after the baby is born. Most people admit that they wish he had never lost to begin with, considering their new champion’s behavior. Part of Gloria trying to keep her head down involves not reading anything said by the press, because most of it is negative. She just tries to ignore that and continue to keep a positive attitude, despite all of the bad things people are saying about her.

She also seems to thing she has it so good at home, with a man who loves her so much that he is willing to protect her from all of this and do her work for her, while she focuses on safely carrying and delivering their baby. It’s crazy, just how oblivious she is to the way that she is being used.

Since this is a night where Leon is home, that means that Hop is probably going to mostly be ignored, while the two of them make these important decisions without him. Of course, why would they worry about what he has to say? He is just the fall guy, not really a part of things, no matter how Leon might try and lie, hyping him up so that he does not realize that he is being used. As if Hop is actually that stupid, as if he would ever fall for such obvious lies, when he has always been smarter than that.

He just thought Gloria would be smarter than that too.

~X~

The next day, he ducks out of the lab early, because he knows that Gloria is going to be completely alone. Sonia has not asked too many prying questions about the scandal, and he wonders just what she thinks about everything. She used to be Leon’s best friend, before the fame went to his head and everything got weird, and of course, she and Hop have always been close, even before she became his mentor. He wonders if she knows more than she is letting on, or if she is even a little bit suspicious about how things are playing out.

Either way, when he says he really needs to head out early so that he can go home to Gloria, she agrees and lets him leave, making some remark about how cute they are, probably just to be polite and to hide how weird she thinks everything is. Hop can’t help but imagine a better world, where Leon did not get swept away in fame, and ended up with Sonia like he should have. Maybe if he were not always alone, he would not have felt so bad about his loss to Gloria, and he would have left her alone, and Hop could have won her over…

By the time he is walking through the door, he has second thoughts about coming home early. He can feel his frustration setting in, and it is never good to be around Gloria when he is this frustrated, when the bitterness creeps in and starts to rule his mind. The reason he wanted to come home was to talk to her more seriously about her career decisions, and everything that is going on, but now, all he can think about is that dumb smile on her face as she willingly let his older brother play her.

How could anyone be that stupid?

“Oh, Hop, you’re home early!” she cries, surprised. “I haven’t even started cooking yet, so I don’t have anything ready, I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting you just yet.” As always, she is cleaning. The apartment is always spotless and she still busies herself with cleaning, because she wants to feel useful. She wants to play the part of Leon’s adorable little housewife, like everything is normal, like they’re a _real_ couple.

So stupid it makes him sick.

“That’s fine,” he replies, stepping closer to her. Her face turns suddenly nervous, and he remembers that she can see it in his eyes, when he is giving into his bitterness. He really should have taken some time to cool off before coming hope but he thought, foolishly as always, that he might be able to control it, since he could feel it coming on. Hop has never been able to control it, not for as long as he has been trying to, trying so hard to make her genuinely fall for him.

“As soon as I finish cleaning up, I can get started. What would you like?” she asks, trying to keep the subject on dinner. So _stupid_.

“I don’t care about that, and you clean every damn day!” he snaps. “If it’s not clean enough now, it’s never going to be, so just come to the bedroom with me.”

She hesitates for a moment, before a defeated expression comes over her face. This isn’t what he wants at all, not even close, but this is how things always end up. Gloria heads for the bedroom- _his_ bedroom, the one he sleeps in alone most nights, because Gloria sleeps in Leon’s bedroom, whenever he’s home, and sometimes when he isn’t, not making it much of a secret that she would rather sleep alone than with Hop.

His emotions are so conflicting as he follows after her, as he is assaulted with guilt for putting her through this, for never actually doing what he needs to do to make her love him, and then more frustration, because she should have loved him from the start, and it does not seem like she is making any effort, even though he tries, at least sometimes.

This should be the part where he changes his mind and backs off, and instead, he closes and locks the bedroom door behind him, even though they will be alone for hours. Even if Leon comes home, what does it matter? He obviously doesn’t care about any of this, but if Hop gets too rough, he would rather not have his brother walk in on it. If Gloria is not going to rat him out for how terrible he is to her, then he is not going to do anything to get himself caught for that.

Gloria takes her clothes off when he tells her to, and she lets him get on top of her, just like he wants to, and she lets him fuck her hard, probably harder than he should, but she hasn’t started seriously showing yet, so he decides not to worry about it, even though that might not make that much of a difference. Nothing else matters to him right now, other than holding her down and having his way with her, because he wants her to be his, and this is probably the only way that he is ever going to make that happen.

How could she be so stupid?

That question keeps playing in his mind as he thrusts into her, barely even enjoying himself, though his body disagrees with that assessment. She has fallen so far from the girl he used to know, all because she was stupid enough to fall for and trust his older brother, and now she is just a weak, submissive housewife who lets both of them push her around.

Naturally, he knows that he is not much better, falling prey to this scheme and falling prey to his own emotions, and running everything, over and over again. Hop does not exactly deserve any praise in the matter either, and does not deserve her, will never deserve her. But if he does not stick around, then she will be alone with Leon, and he’ll worry…

But she probably shouldn’t be allowed to be alone with him either.

~X~

Just like always, she bounces back to normal- or whatever is considered normal for her _now_ \- once Hop is done with her. She just gets dressed and heads to the kitchen so that she can start cooking, so that she prepare Hop’s dinner, and then prepare for a late dinner with Leon. To her, nothing else matters as much as the distractions she has created inside this apartment, to shield herself from everything going on outside.

Her scandal continues to make headlines, even without her there to feed the press. Hop is often asked questions wherever he goes, but he is not stupid enough to answer them, getting rather good at ignoring the paparazzi. Even Sonia is not entirely safe from it, but she keeps her mouth shut as well, knowing better than to stir up anything that she doesn’t mean to.

And, truth be told, despite her close relationship with the alleged happy couple, she really does not know anything other than the stories being fed to the media.

Gloria starts showing, and she never leaves after that. Occasionally, she could be convinced to sneak out and try and avoid the press, but now, Leon tells her that it might be better for her to take no unnecessary risks, and she agrees, staying locked away and letting her two boyfriends take care of everything, while she simply slaves away at home, waiting for them to return.

Hop still gets plenty of time alone with her, and still struggles as much as ever to keep his behavior in check, to do anything to make her reconsider her feelings. Gloria is never going to love him, not the way that she loves Leon, and he can see it in her eyes, every time that she looks at him. Leon is hardly around anymore, so busy resuming his champion duties, and yet she still thinks the world of him.

Probably, she would still be just as in love with him even if she found out the truth. Maybe that would not have been the case if she found out at the beginning, but now that she is already in so deep, what else could she do? Leaving him now would not do anything, other than make all the time she has spent on him a waste. She would probably choose to stay at his side, and continue to pretend as if she has no idea, as if she thinks she has it so good.

There is a chance that has already happened, because Hop would have no idea if it did, not if she kept hiding her feelings, and pretending not to have figured it out.

~X~

They get into an argument one night, when she confesses that she did not deserve to become champion. Hop is outraged to hear this, asking, “Why would you even say something like that?”

“Because it’s true. I don’t think I’m going to go back next year, even once the baby is born,” she says, already looking worried. He must have that look in his eyes again. “I wasn’t ready.”

“Of course you were! You beat…you beat Lee, we all saw it!”

“Yeah, but he…Hop, I think he let me win,” she says, her voice very soft.

“How could you be so stupid?” he snaps, unable to hold that back. “Lee would _never_ let someone win! He loved his championship more than anyone or anything in the world! Why would you think he would throw it away for _anyone_?”

“Because…because he basically told me he did!”

“Oh, and like always, you just believe whatever he says,” Hop replies, not bothering to hide the disgust in his voice. He is so tired of dealing with her, so tired of watching her make a fool of herself for his selfish older brother.

“It’s alright, though. He fixed everything. He’s going to be champion like he deserves, so it’s fine,” she says, as if she did not hear a word Hop has said. She just hears what she needs to, and thinks whatever she needs to, in order to keep living this life.

“Gloria…just get undressed,” he says, because he can think of nothing else. She is stupid, and he is the worst, and she is never going to love him because of that. The two of them have both been taken in and taken over by Leon, and he is not sure if anything will be enough to get back at his brother.

He is as trapped as Gloria is, and right now, it seems like there is no way out.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're interested in my writing updates, please follow my fanfiction twitter @WattStalf  
> 


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